The Official Russian Bill Draft- Crypto Rouble Trouble for State Employees

Surprisingly, Russian government supports cryptocurrencies, but without the lag of anti-money laundering concerns. In process to regulate the anonymity of cryptocurrency transactions, an official draft of Russian Cryptokew Law mandating the government officials to reveal their crypto –money. Currently, the bill is under review by the Central Bank and Russian Ministry of Finance. The bill’s final version is expected before July 1, 2018.

…into the particualrs of the Bill

Anatoly Aksakov- the State Duma Committee’s Chairman for Financial Markets, stated that the bill requires the Russian officials with cryptocurrency holdings to showcase their crypto assets. The state’s control over the crypto-rouble will levy 13% tax on organizations and individuals trading in the ‘digital currency’. This is to create legal obtention, while regulating trade of the “shadow market” and eliminating possibilities of financial crimes.

The bill was proposed on January 25 in lower house of parliament. It proposes to categorize Cryptocurrency under “other property” head. If this bill will be adopted the State Duma MPs will have to include declaration of their Crypto Holdings. According to the statements of the concerned authorities, adoption of the federal law draft will not entail any additional cost. Moreover, it doesn’t requires modifications in the state’s financial obligations.

There are actually two bills proposed in the house. The first one proposes regulatory framework for crypto mining, initial coin offerings (ICOs), and cryptocurrencies. The second bill is for crowdfunding regulation. It features the procedures to be implemented in case of an organization’s bankruptcy that issued token.

The need of introducing the bill
Earlier, government officials had to provide statement of their crypto earnings. That resulted in the increase in corruption rate of the country. According to the statistics, there is 30% increase in Russia’s corruption since 2008. Hence, the officials were exempted from making public declaration of their crypto income. But the government now took a U-turn. Aksakov states that it is to justify the cryptocurrency rules stated by the government.

As of the earlier statements, the income statement of the government officials didn’t require declaration of the profits earned through virtual currencies. The new draft law proposes a number of Russian Civil Code amendments, which includes recognising cryptoruble as a national digital financial asset. It also proposes to amend Article 140 of the Russian Federation’s Civil Code.
The Russian Government is also looking forward to legalization of cryptocurrency trading, but on the approved exchanges. Due to lack of proper definition of cryptocurrencies the officials need not provide statement of their crypto assets.

Prior to Russia, South Korea’s Administrative and Security Committee introduced a bill in the National Assembly’s proposing to mandate the officials for declaration of their crypto investments. The step was taken after some Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) employees were accused of Bitcoin trading.

The Bottom Line
Russia is looking forward to apply rules for ICO’s initial public offerings in order to regulate the dealing of cryptographic tokens. Plus, the government is also intending to come up with a legalized system for cryptocurrency miners that will ensure regulation of their registrations and taxes on the income earned through the dealings.